About 0141:53, the first officer again called for the landing checklist, and the flight engineer resumed reading the checklist items. About 0141:59, when the airplane was descending through 1,100 feet msl at a point about 4.6 nm from the runway 6L threshold (approximately 1.3 nm from the VOR), the first officer stated "not in sight?" One second later, the CVR recorded the GPWS radio altitude callout of "five hundred [feet]." According to the CVR, about 2 seconds later the flight engineer stated "eh?" in an astonished tone of voice.
About 0142:05, the captain and flight engineer continued the landing checklist. About 0142:14, as the airplane was descending through 840 feet msl and the flight crew was performing the landing checklist, the GPWS issued a "minimums minimums" annunciation followed by a "sink rate" alert[1] about 3 seconds later. The first officer responded, "sink rate okay" about 0142:18; FDR data indicated that the airplane was descending 1,400 feet per minute at that time.
About 0142:19, as the airplane descended through 730 feet msl, the flight engineer stated, "two hundred [feet]," and the first officer said, "let's make a missed approach." About 1 second later, the flight engineer stated, "not in sight," and the first officer said, "not in sight, missed approach." About 0142:22, as the airplane descended through approximately 680 feet msl, the FDR showed that the control column position began increasing (nose up) at a rate of about 1? per second, and the CVR indicated that the flight engineer stated, "go around." When the captain stated "go around" about 1 second later, the airplane's engine pressure ratios and airspeed began to increase. However, the rate of nose-up control column deflection remained about 1° per second. At 0142:23.77, as the airplane descended through 670 feet msl, the CVR recorded the sound of the autopilot disconnect warning. At 0142:24.05, the CVR began recording sequential GPWS radio altitude callouts of "one hundred...fifty...forty...thirty...twenty [feet]." About 0142:26, the airplane impacted hilly terrain at Nimitz Hill, Guam, about 660 feet msl and about 3.3 nm from the runway 6L threshold. FDR data indicated that, at the time of initial ground impact, the pitch attitude of the airplane was increasing through 3°. The accident occurred at 13? 27.35 minutes north latitude and 144? 43.92 minutes east longitude during the hours of darkness. The CVR stopped recording about 0142:32.
Figure 1 shows the instrument approach chart for the Guam runway 6L ILS procedure that was in effect at the time of the accident. Figures 2 and 3 show FDR information for the last 5 ? minutes of flight, along with CVR comments and sounds and air traffic control (ATC) data.
- ↑ This alert occurs when the GPWS computer determines that the barometric sink rate of the airplane, beginning at 2,450 feet above ground level (agl), exceeds the designed threshold sink rate value. The threshold value for approximately 200 feet agl is 1,200 feet per minute.
